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IBM Watson Studio vs SAS Visual Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Watson Studio
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (11th), AI Development Platforms (9th)
SAS Visual Analytics
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Watson Studio is designed for Data Science Platforms and holds a mindshare of 1.9%, down 2.3% compared to last year.
SAS Visual Analytics, on the other hand, focuses on Data Visualization, holds 4.6% mindshare, down 6.3% since last year.
Data Science Platforms
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

Abilio Duarte - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly robust and well-documented platform that simplifies the complex world of AI
The main challenge lies in visibility and ease of use. Providing training sessions can be immensely helpful in helping users navigate and understand the tool's potential. This approach would empower users to explore and make the most of the tools and technologies at their disposal. Another area where IBM could enhance its offering is by providing more visibility to end users regarding the vast potential that Watson offers.
Renato Vazamin - PeerSpot reviewer
Single environment for multiple phases saves us time, and has good visualizations
We had that solution installed previously in another solution, Selvaya, but I don't think we used it at the time. We are now using SAS Detect Investigation as a complementary solution, in which we have part of the process, use a gene, SAS collects information and identifies some business situations, and the business guys use Visual Analytics to explore the results of the process. We previously used the FICO platform, but we switched because FICO's pricing was not scalable. Bringing more data or workloads to the platform required a significant investment in order to scale. We needed to change because we have a lot of data to process every day. FICO was also a little more complicated than SAS Visual Analytics.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most important thing is that it's a multi-faceted solution. It's a kind of specialist, not a generalist. It can produce very specific information for the customer. It's totally different from Google or any search engine that produces generic information. It's specialty is that it's all on video."
"It is a stable, reliable product."
"Technical support is great. We have had weekly teleconferences with the technical people at IBM, and they have been fantastic."
"It stands out for its substantial AI capabilities, offering a broad spectrum of features for crafting solutions that meet specific requirements."
"Stability-wise, it is a great tool."
"The solution is very easy to use."
"Watson Studio is very stable."
"It has greatly improved the performance because it is standardized across the company."
"The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps with quality assurance processes."
"It provided the capability to visualize a bunch of data in an organized way."
"I believe that the possibilities for exploring data and formulating visual results are quite good because it allows the business analyst to have different perspectives on the data."
"It's relatively simple to create basic dashboards and reports."
"The product is stable, reliable, and scalable."
"Visual Analytics is very easy to use. I use Visual Analytics for all the typical use cases except text mining. I used it to analyze data and monitor statistics, not text mining. I also use it for data visualization as well as creating interactive dashboards and infographics."
"I use Visual Analytics for enterprise reporting."
"The alert generation feature also helps in sending out ad hoc messages to the business users if business thresholds have been crossed."
 

Cons

"I want IBM's technical support team to provide more specific answers to queries."
"The solution's interface is very slow at times."
"Some of the solutions are really good solutions but they can be a little too costly for many."
"One area that could be improved is the backup and restoration of the database and the overall database configuration."
"Initially, it was quite complex. For us, it was not only a matter of getting it installed, that was just a start. It was also trying to come up with a standard way of implementing it across the entire organization, which had been a challenge."
"So a better user interface could be very helpful"
"The initial setup was complex."
"Watson Studio would be improved with a clearer path for the deployment of docker images."
"There is a need for coding when it comes to digital reporting which can be intimidating."
"The product is expensive and needs the integration of more languages."
"There are scalability issues. It depends on the data volume and number of end-users. VA requires a lot of hardware resources to move volumes of data."
"There are a few little things that are predefined and can be done out of the box immediately. There is no business intelligence application that is predefined, which is something some customers or prospects would love to have. Small and mid-sized companies would struggle with it because they prefer something standard that has been predefined by somebody else."
"The reason we haven't rolled it out across the board is due to the fact that the licensing is so expensive."
"A bit more flexibility in the temperatization will be helpful."
"Some capabilities are missing compared to Power BI, especially when working with spreadsheet types."
"The installation process can be a bit complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Watson Studio is a reasonably priced product"
"The pricing is generally reasonable and straightforward but can vary significantly depending on the specific workloads in use."
"IBM Watson Studio is an expensive solution."
"Watson Studio's pricing is reasonable for what you get."
"I work with the tool's free version...The tool's corporate version is very expensive and requires a monthly hire."
"$10,000 per annum for an enterprise license."
"The cost of the solution can be expensive. There is an additional cost for users."
"The product is quite expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"Licensing is simple."
"It was licensed for corporate use, and its licensing was on a yearly basis."
"Visual Analytics is expensive for a small company like mine. You also need to deploy it on a server or cloud, so you pay for the license as well as the cost of the cloud or the server that you will deploy on."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Government
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Watson Studio?
The pricing of Watson Studio is justified by the benefits and power it offers.
What needs improvement with IBM Watson Studio?
One area that could be improved is the backup and restoration of the database and the overall database configuration. There were also challenges with programming the network extension in the last p...
What do you like most about SAS Visual Analytics?
The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Visual Analytics?
It's about an average of five. It's easy to scale, but it comes with cost.
What needs improvement with SAS Visual Analytics?
Some capabilities are missing compared to Power BI, especially when working with spreadsheet types. Furthermore, Excel is more customizable compared to SAS Visual Analytics, which can be quite rigi...
 

Also Known As

Watson Studio, IBM Data Science Experience, Data Science Experience, DSx
SAS BI
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GroupM, Accenture, Fifth Third Bank
Staples, Ausgrid, Scotiabank, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy, and Triad Analytics Solutions.
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842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.